Tassos and Inga, Local Moods in Peloponnese (Greece)

What makes your Project … a reference for the creative tourism?

Local Moods is one of the very few projects that promotes Creative tourism in Peloponnese and gives the protagonism to the local based artisans and guides. It is the result of our decision to come back to Greece (after living abroad for more than a decade) and try to promote the region of Peloponnese as a travel destination.

The Peloponnese is a region in south Greece that combines almost everything a visitor may want; beautiful landscape (both mountains and sea), culture, history, sightseeing, great gastronomy, endemic flora and fauna and many more. We believe that Pelponnese is a destination that has nothing to envy from other famous destinations in the world.

We are presenting to the traveller a variety of Creative and Eco activities categorized by areas of Peloponnese and by the type of activity that you are searching. Apart from all that we maintain our own office in Kalamata where visitors can buy unique handmade crafts made by us or by some local based artists, get information and ideas for their holidays.

What kind of creative activities do you propose?

Our proposal as Local Moods contains 2 kinds of activities, Indoors and Outdoors. In the Creative Mood category a visitor can choose workshops between woodworking, ceramics, pyrography, mosaic, metal art and we are continuously making new collaborators in order to offer more options to the visitor. In the Eco mood category they can choose between visiting a berry farm and be part of the process, go for mushroom picking,botanical tours, prepare some local recipes with fresh local products, visit a winery or/and an olive mill, meet the producers and end up with some tasting of their products. Apart from these that you can find on our website there are more options that we still didn’t have the time to upload.

Who are the visitors who participate in your activities?

The people who participate in the activities that we offer through our website are mostly foreign visitors that they are interested in getting to know the place that they are visiting. Interact with locals but also participate in the process of making. People who are curious to understand the details that make each place unique . Till now we had visitors from Germany, Canada, Spain, Netherlands…

Of course the activities are available also for Greek visitors and we really hope that Greek people will show more interest for their traditions and handcrafts. Creative tourism is not yet a common habit for Greeks to do during holidays but hopefully and when the economic crisis that the country is dealimg with, finishes, more Greeks will be able to allow themselves and extra cost during their holidays.

What’s the way you work with the locals?

We decide to include an activity after we have met personally the collaborators and have the feeling that we share similar values about nature, sustainability, hospitality and professionalism.

Our collaborators are local people that want to share their knowledge and expertise with the visitors and interact with them. They design almost exclusively the format of the activity and we are responsible for the selection, promotion, reservation , organization and of all the details that this includes.

In which way do your project benefit to the locals?

We believe that Local Moods project benefits the local economy in various ways. By promoting successfully the local artisans and their workshops we contribute to the increase of their income and of their self confidence. We believe firmly that interaction with diferent cultures and people from other countries is very positive and broadminded. Meeting new people helps to understand better the world around you.

By promoting Peloponnese as a Creative destination we become part of the further development of the area and of the extension of the touristic period by offering some seasonal activities (mushroom picking, olive harvesting, botanical tours, etc). If more people visit Peloponnese because of Local Moods then we are putting our brick to this transformation. Peloponnese is famous for many reasons but not for the creative potential that has and inspires.

What is the value chain created by your project?

All the activities that we offer have been handpicked by us and as we mentioned earlier we have met personally all the artisans and guides to make sure that we all agree on common values. Apart from that, we are the responsible for the content of our website. Everything inside the page has been written by us and most of the photos have been taken by us. We have tried and we still do to involve more local professionals to our services and our target is that every service that our project offers to be exclusively by local professionals (hosting, rentals, equipment, etc.).

We agree to include in the listing of our website the artisans and guides without an entrance fee. We want to get paid only if we bring extra income to our collaborators and we believe that this make s us work harder and better in order to succeed our goals.

How did you come up with Local Moods idea?

Local Moods was born when we returned to Greece after living abroad for more than a decade. We decided to leave Barcelona for various reasons, namely the uncontrolled mass tourism in the area. Rents skyrocket, traditional bars get replaced by trendy cafes and small shops have a hard time to compete against multinational companies. All these have caused a sense of discontent within the local community.

When we moved to Kalamata, we noticed that there were enough activities offered by individuals and local businesses. However, there was a deficit in collaboration, management and digital presence. As a result, it would be difficult for a visitor to know all these activities on offer. This led us to launch the localmoods.com website. Through the website anyone can get information and book creative and eco-friendly activities throughout the Peloponnese.

We believe firmly that interaction with diferent cultures and people from other countries is very positive and broadminded. Meeting new people helps to understand better the world around you.